Auditors' board warns on KPMG

JOHANNESBURG - The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (Irba) has hit out at reports that the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) intends to launch an independent inquiry into embattled auditing firm KPMG’s conduct, saying it has no legal mandate to do so.

In a statement yesterday, the Irba said it had noted the announcement by Saica on Wednesday that it intended to launch such an independent inquiry, following the events which transpired over the last few months regarding the firm’s involvement in the audit of Linkway Trading and the South African Revenue Service (Sars) report.

Irba chief executive Bernard Agulhas said Parliament had previously publicly announced that the Irba was performing an investigation into KPMG regarding the above matters, in terms of the Auditing Profession Act, Act 26 of 2005, the Irba’s governing legislation.

The Irba will be reporting back to Parliament on progress with its investigation, Agulhas added. Last week KPMG announced that it had withdrawn its report on the work the audit firm did for Sars and on behalf of the Gupta family.